Star Wars Wednesday: Splinter of the Mind's Eye

Splinter of the Mind’s Eye

          We’ve covered a lot of firsts here on Star Wars Wednesday. We’ve seen the first Star Wars video game, the first Star Wars theme park ride, the first Star Wars fan film, and (begrudgingly) the first Star Wars TV appearance.

          Today we’ll be looking at something that I’m honestly surprised I haven’t covered yet: the first Star Wars Expanded Universe novel! It’s time to look at Splinter of the Mind’s Eye!

          Released in February 1978, Splinter was the first Star Wars book to contain a new story not from the movies. While there’d been a novelization of A New Hope around for a few years, this was the first one released that told an all-new story. You can thank Splinter for the now 40 years of new Star Wars books that expanded and built upon the movies in new and creative ways.

          Splinter of the Mind’s Eye wasn’t always a book, however. Initially it was conceived by George Lucas as a low-budget sequel to A New Hope should the movie turn out to be a flop like most of the cast and crew expected. A lot of the book reflects this fact: almost the whole thing takes place on a planet covered in fog, Han is absent (as Harrison Ford hadn’t signed on for any more movies yet), and, according to author Alan Dean Foster, Lucas asked him to remove a space battle sequence from the opening, presumably because it’d cost too much to shoot.

          But, as we all know, the movie turned out to be an unprecedented success story, and Splinter was finished and turned into a book to be released while Lucas worked on the far more ambitious and impressive sequel fans were undoubtedly expecting.

          He also said yes to the Holiday Special around this time…so that’s wonderful.

          But enough background, what exactly is this book about? Basically Luke and Leia are on a mission trying to find a mysterious Force artifact known as the Kaiburr crystal when they crash-land on the swamp planet of Mimban. But when it turns out that the crystal is actually on Mimban too, it’s a race against the clock to get it before Vader does.

          This book is also notable for being the first introduction of kyber crystals to the franchise, which have become a huge component of Star Wars these days. While not using the correct spelling of the crystals, the Kaiburr crystal was later explained as the most powerful of all kyber crystals. It could also enhance a user’s force capabilities, such as gifting the power of force lightning to those usually unable to use it.

          If you can track it down in either its original novel format or as the comic book adaption that was released in 1996, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye is worth a look if only because it’s the first Expanded Universe book ever created. It gets clunky at times these days, especially when you remember that it was originally intended to be a low-budget sequel to the first movie, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless.